Tuesday it got a little better when his four-touchdown performance against the B.C. Lions earned him CFL offensive player of the week honours.

Burris and his surging Ticats are headed to Calgary later this week. Calgary, of course, is Burris’ most familiar CFL city having spent 10 years as a member of the Stamps and it remains home to the Burris family. With quality family time in short supply during a football season, Burris was very much looking forward to the trip. The award was just a nice little capper.

It would be easy to paint Burris as the CFL’s version of a fine wine aging to perfection, but that would actually be a disservice to Burris’ play of late, really since he arrived in Hamilton.

As good as he has been throughout his career, it is since he arrived in the Hammer that Burris has put up numbers that dwarf anything he has done previously in the CFL.

A year ago he threw for a career high 5,346 yards, 43 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 104.4 for the season. All were personal best marks.

It’s definitely not a career path that is common.

Burris’ first year in the league was spent on the Calgary Stampeders roster in 1997 behind Jeff Garcia and later Dave Dickenson, who is now the offensive coordinator in Calgary.

At the time the consensus No. 1 quarterback in the league was Doug Flutie.

Now sixteen years later Burris is on pace for an even better year than Flutie had in what turned out to be his final CFL season.

Burris is on pace to throw for over 5,700 yards this season or about 200 more than Flutie had when he was 35.

Burris, who knows football is a team sport first and foremost said that while the weekly award was nice it was really an award that should have been shared by the entire Hamilton offence.

Without his protection up front and the gaggle of sure-handed receivers around him, there is no way Burris could do what he is doing.

But the fact that Burris is operating at such a high level at the age of 38 makes any award an even bigger cause for celebration.

Consider that Burris arrived in the league the same year his present day head coach Kent Austin did and Austin, who had a pretty solid playing career himself, already has a coaching resume that includes stops in four CFL cities, a stint as offensive coordinator at his alma mater Ol Miss and another head coaching job at Cornell before returning to the CFL where he now carries the duel portfolio of coach and general manager.

Burris has been slinging footballs through all of that and to think he’s doing it at a higher level today than he ever did in what most would consider his prime when he was 28 or 29 is hard to fathom.

Not so much for Burris though.

“You get out of this game what you put into it and I have been training my butt off just to make sure that regardless what my age is, I know physically how far I can push myself and each year I try to come in and prepare myself mentally to be become a much better quarterback when it comes to decision making and being more efficient. But I also come in stronger so I can stand in that pocket and withstand hits and stay healthy for my team.”

And as good as he has been these past two years, Burris isn’t close to being satisfied.

“I still want to get better,” Burris said. “There are still some things I want to improve on. I had those turnovers (Saturday) and that lull in the fourth quarter so for us to become a great offence those are things that can’t be happening.”

Burris heads into Friday’s game knowing he is on the verge of joining a select group of quarterbacks who have thrown for 50,000 yards in a career. The list includes Ron Lancaster, Danny McManus, Damon Allen, and Anthony Calvillo. When Burris hits the 218-yard mark on Friday, a near certainty given he hasn’t been under 300 in four consecutive weeks now, he will join that elite group.

Burris says it will be an honour to join that type of company, but in all honesty, he’s much more concerned with keeping what the Ticats have going moving in the same direction.

The Ticats have won four of the past five, they are within a game of first place in the conference and both the offence and the defence appear to be getting better with each passing week.

And heading home not even the expected ribbing from all the friends and associates Burris still has in Calgary is going to put a damper on things for Burris. Things are just too good right now. He won’t let it.

“I’ve told all my friends out there that nobody can boo me because I know where they all live and if they do I’ll hunt them down in the off-season,” Burris said.

RESTING UP

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats defence looked drastically undermanned when the team returned to the practice field on Monday following a huge win over B.C.

Turns out head coach Kent Austin and his defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer were just getting some key players a little rest.

Back on the field and taking all the necessary reps on Tuesday were defensive mainstays Jamaal Johnson, Evan McCollough, and Dee Webb after a day off on Monday.

Also back on the field and back in his regular cornerback position was Delvin Breaux, who has missed the past two games because of injury.

Offensive guard Joel Figueroa, who was a late scratch on Saturday, is practising and should return to the offensive line.

Defensive end Brandon Boudreaux did not practice Tuesday. His spot on the defensive line was filled Tuesday by Louis Richardson, although Sam Scott, who took most of the reps there in Saturday’s game, was excused from practice to attend to a personal matter.

Tuesday it got a little better when his four-touchdown performance against the B.C. Lions earned him CFL offensive player of the week honours.

Burris and his surging Ticats are headed to Calgary later this week. Calgary, of course, is Burris’ most familiar CFL city having spent 10 years as a member of the Stamps and it remains home to the Burris family. With quality family time in short supply during a football season, Burris was very much looking forward to the trip. The award was just a nice little capper.

It would be easy to paint Burris as the CFL’s version of a fine wine aging to perfection, but that would actually be a disservice to Burris’ play of late, really since he arrived in Hamilton.

As good as he has been throughout his career, it is since he arrived in the Hammer that Burris has put up numbers that dwarf anything he has done previously in the CFL.